N.C. mountain non clave

[Joe McIntosh]

sure hope Jeff Miller and his fellow fishermen in the mountains this week
are not getting the rain we are receiving in the eastern part of the
state- three days of heavy showers with two more days expected.
Reminds me of an early Roff clave years ago when Snowbird and the major
creeks were blown out overflowing so Wayno directed us to Dick Creek--a
small brush covered creek so narrow that Fontenberry and I had to climb
over each other to take turns making two foot casts.
Wed (12th) is Miller's birthday--he said he was going into Slickrock area
to catch big browns where Tewkbury and Harry Middleton used to roam--good
luck my friend.

As a result of my college course on modern Chinese history this semester
have been doing so extensive reading concerning the Long March of the
Chinese communism's survival in 1935 . [ around 100,000 Chinese Communist
men and women sat out on the most extraordinary march in human history-took
them a whole year to trek on foot for 6,000 miles to the other end of
China.}
When Mao was ask what was the oddest thing they encountered on the march he
replied "Isuppose it was the fish. We came to places where so few people had
been before that if you waded into the river, the fish would leap into your
hands."

Reminds me of a guide in New Zealand--before I hired him for a day.
Indian Joe

[Bob Patton]

"Joe McIntosh" > wrote in message
...
> sure hope Jeff Miller and his fellow fishermen in the mountains this week
> are not getting the rain we are receiving in the eastern part of the
> state- three days of heavy showers with two more days expected.
> Reminds me of an early Roff clave years ago when Snowbird and the major
> creeks were blown out overflowing so Wayno directed us to Dick Creek--a
> small brush covered creek so narrow that Fontenberry and I had to climb
> over each other to take turns making two foot casts.
> Wed (12th) is Miller's birthday--he said he was going into Slickrock area
> to catch big browns where Tewkbury and Harry Middleton used to roam--good
> luck my friend.
>
> As a result of my college course on modern Chinese history this semester
> have been doing so extensive reading concerning the Long March of the
> Chinese communism's survival in 1935 . [ around 100,000 Chinese
> Communist men and women sat out on the most extraordinary march in human
> history-took them a whole year to trek on foot for 6,000 miles to the
> other end of China.}
> When Mao was ask what was the oddest thing they encountered on the march
> he replied "Isuppose it was the fish. We came to places where so few
> people had been before that if you waded into the river, the fish would
> leap into your hands."
>
> Reminds me of a guide in New Zealand--before I hired him for a day.
> Indian Joe
>

As always, with the triumph of hope over experience, I replaced leaders on
both my lines, put together a nice box of dries, and double-checked contents
of the vest and backpack today. Packed up tonight - heading east by south
first thing in the a.m. IIRC, Jeffie was going to be in Durham tonight at a
Stones concert. I'll be at Snowbird on Monday and hope to link up with the
boy lawyer and any others who might be there. Extended forecast looks to be
partly cloudy and warm most of next week. Looking good!

--
Bob Patton
(remove hat to respond)

[Jeff Miller]

Joe McIntosh wrote:

> sure hope Jeff Miller and his fellow fishermen in the mountains this week
> are not getting the rain we are

rained lightly for 2 days, but the streams never lost clarity. rains
were much needed as the streams were very low...lowest i've ever seen
them. otherwise, sun shone bright and weather was pleasant in grayham
county. fished all the usual spots...but, didn't make it to slickrock.
so, still waiting to share the slickrock trip with you...you'll simply
have to continue in this life until you show it to me.

jeff


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[Wayne Harrison]

"Jeff Miller" > wrote

> rained lightly for 2 days, but the streams never lost clarity.

wow. you could'a busted my ass on a bet about that! sorry i couldn't
make it. i got screwed by this bitchy case manager from the sixth circuit,
who refused to give me an extention on the due date for my brief in a case i
tried last year in the eastern district of tennessee.


fished all the usual spots...but, didn't make it to slickrock.

how'd you do?

yfitp
wayno

[Jeff Miller]

Wayne Harrison wrote:

> "Jeff Miller" > wrote
>
>
>>rained lightly for 2 days, but the streams never lost clarity.
>
>
> wow. you could'a busted my ass on a bet about that! sorry i couldn't
> make it. i got screwed by this bitchy case manager from the sixth circuit,
> who refused to give me an extention on the due date for my brief in a case i
> tried last year in the eastern district of tennessee.
>
>
> fished all the usual spots...but, didn't make it to slickrock.
>
> how'd you do?
>
> yfitp
> wayno
>
>

all the streams were extremely low during our first week there...fished
buffalo, squally, snowbird, and santeetlah the first week, with one day
devoted to boatriding around on lake santeetlah. caught lots of
fish...typical size, no bigguns... except for several of andy jordan's
huge pets behind his cabin on snowbird. he has some that approach 30
inches and are very healthy. big shoulders and huge girth like western
trout. though zoo fish, they fought hard and were fun because i could
show rachel a bit of what we do when fishing for trout. got a picture of
one, posted on abpf. it took a stimulator, fought like mad and ran all
over the stream, leaped 3-4 times, all witnessed by Rachel - her first
observation of a caught trout - from cast, drift, hook-up, fight,
landing, and release.

rained 2 days during first week...very light. when we drove to durham on
saturday for the stones concert, sun was bright over fontana and we
drove into heavy rain in g-boro. but only a sprinkle of rain in durham
during the concert.

despite the rains, snowbird never dirtied up. the rains did raise the
water level a bit. fishing stayed steady. except for the trip with danl
and bob patton over to hazel on tuesday of the second week, i spent a
lot of time fishing the lower stretches of snowbird in my quest to fish
and learn a bit about all of its miles. probably only got about a mile
above the junction, but saw a lot of new water and figured out some of
the stretches by entry and exit points. my hope/plan is to close all the
gaps i've not yet fished above the junction. historically, i've spent
most of my time in stretches from sassafrass up. found lots of nice
water below sassafrass on this trip. raised a couple of good-sized fish
out of deep water, but they just looked at the fly and never bit.

hazel was uncrowded. no one in the lower campground and we never saw
another fisherman until our walk out. we fished above the second bridge
and a few of the stretches below. caught lots of rainbows 9-11", and
many twisters as well. all on dries. no big fish this trip, but it's
always fun to be over there. on the way out, we chatted briefly with two
guys that came in at some point after we did. the only other fishermen
we saw over there. they were fishing just above the spanish house...one
looked to be well into his seventies. i like seeing that. <g>

on our way back from hazel, we fished the lake for an hour or two,
tossing wooly buggers. i saw one smallmouth that was easily over 20
inches, but we caught only one along with more than a dozen bluegills.
there are some big bluegills in fontana...very surprising to me.

jeff

[Bob Patton]

Went to slickrock today. Very interesting place. About an hour and 20
minutes to walk in over a trail that, while generally well-maintained,
is more like a sketchy footpath on the edge of a precipice than the
veritable superhighways at hazel and snowbird. Fishing was better there
than at either Snowbird or Hazel for me. And on this fine Sunday with
beautiful weather, didn't see another fisherman. Will post a more
complete TR soon.
Bob

[Tom Brown]

Bob Patton wrote:
> Went to slickrock today. Very interesting place. About an hour and 20
> minutes to walk in over a trail that, while generally well-maintained,
> is more like a sketchy footpath on the edge of a precipice than the
> veritable superhighways at hazel and snowbird. Fishing was better there
> than at either Snowbird or Hazel for me. And on this fine Sunday with
> beautiful weather, didn't see another fisherman. Will post a more
> complete TR soon.
> Bob
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bob,

How did you approach Slickrock? Top down, bottom up (from Lake
Calderwood), or across? All are tough. I've taken some fine fish from
that creek in past years - big browns in lower sections.

Tom
Wake Forest, NC

[Wayne Harrison]

"Bob Patton" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Went to slickrock today. Very interesting place. About an hour and 20
> minutes to walk in over a trail that, while generally well-maintained,
> is more like a sketchy footpath on the edge of a precipice than the
> veritable superhighways at hazel and snowbird. Fishing was better there
> than at either Snowbird or Hazel for me. And on this fine Sunday with
> beautiful weather, didn't see another fisherman. Will post a more
> complete TR soon.
> Bob

compared to my limited experience, twice on the creek, both times from
calderwood upstream, that is a very different result. i have never been
more challenged to catch a fish than at slickrock. i have never caught a
fish while standing--only on my hands and knees, in or out of the water.

'course, i know that accountants have this remarkable ability to become
invisible.

yfitons
wayno
>

[Wayne Harrison]

"Tom Brown" > wrote

> How did you approach Slickrock? Top down, bottom up (from Lake
> Calderwood), or across? All are tough. I've taken some fine fish from
> that creek in past years - big browns in lower sections.


true dat, thomasino...

whatcha been doin, bro?

yfitp
wayno

[Tom Brown]

Wayne Harrison wrote:
> "Tom Brown" > wrote
>
>
>>How did you approach Slickrock? Top down, bottom up (from Lake
>>Calderwood), or across? All are tough. I've taken some fine fish from
>>that creek in past years - big browns in lower sections.
>
>
>
> true dat, thomasino...
>
> whatcha been doin, bro?
>
> yfitp
> wayno
>
>
Working waaaaaay to much. Out of pocket for a couple of weeks and
returned with some gawd awful flulike somethingorother. Not much
likelihood of seeing cold water until mid-December. OTOH, the bills are
paid.

Around a campfire, I should tell a Slickrock tale about having been in a
sandbox for a couple of months, returning just before Christmas and
deciding (from a warmer climate, 7,000 miles away) that I was going to
spend Christmas on Slickrock. Mother Nature hadn't mentioned temps of
-15F. Happy ending, but interesting trip, to say the least.

Hope you and yours are OK.

Tom

[Bob Patton]

Tom,
I parked at a nondescript parking lot beside the US129 bridge over the
lake (at Tapoco) and walked in from there. For about a half mile it's a
wide trail - formerly a road, I assume. Then the Ike Branch trail
splits off to the left and the Slick Rock Creek trail continues on
around the shore of Calderwood lake. The trail is relatively level but
the hillsides on each side are extremely steep. In places the trail is
as rocky as a creek bottom - good hiking shoes are very important. Met
one hiker on the way out who'd fallen. Had a sprained ankle and a big
bandage across his jaw.

If one had a boat (JEFF??) and if there's a ramp near the bridge the
same trip could probably be made in fifteen minutes - and you'd
probably be able to stop the boat at the plunge pool where the creek
flows into the lake.

I put my wading boots and fishing gear in a backpack and carried it in.
The trail is probably forty almost-vertical feet above the stream, so I
heaved the backpack down the hill and slid down the hill after it.
Eventually found an easier way back up.

Bob

[Bob Patton]

I found SR to be less challenging than hazel - similar to snowbird but
different. Still plenty challenging. I only fished the bottom quarter
mile or so, over about three hours. The bottom of the stream is filled
with large rocks and submerged overhanging ledges - it looks like it's
beautiful brown trout water. I caught four small rainbows.

Plenty of big boulders to hide behind while casting- but fishing it is
not an athletic event like the upper portion of Santeetlah, where Jeff,
Wolfgang, and I fished three years ago.

There are some flat spots beside the stream that would be good
campsites. I'd think the thing to do is spend the night there and fish
very late in the day or very early in the morning. Looking at the moss
on the rocks, I did not see a lot of evidence of heavy foot traffic on
the stream.

Bob

[Joe McIntosh]

"Tom Brown" > wrote in message
link.net...
> Wayne Harrison wrote:
>> "Tom Brown" > wrote
>>
>>
>>>How did you approach Slickrock? Top down, bottom up (from Lake
>>>Calderwood), or across? All are tough. I've taken some fine fish from
>>>that creek in past years - big browns in lower sections.
>>
>>
>>
IJ reminisces--been into Slickrock five times-
twiceby hiking in
along side lake- twice by falling down path from fat gap -and once kayaked
over from boatramp across lake.
the stream remains an an puzzle for me. Plenty of rainbow , a few small
browns but never the reported monster brown.
Now area gets lots of hikers in summer, even believe some summer camp groups
comes thru---but the old timers around Graham county ( who now bass fish by
boat ) tell big stories about the good old days on Slickrock

[Tom Brown]

Joe McIntosh wrote:
> "Tom Brown" > wrote in message
> link.net...
>
>>Wayne Harrison wrote:
>>
>>>"Tom Brown" > wrote
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>How did you approach Slickrock? Top down, bottom up (from Lake
>>>>Calderwood), or across? All are tough. I've taken some fine fish from
>>>>that creek in past years - big browns in lower sections.
>>>
>>>
>>>
> IJ reminisces--been into Slickrock five times-
> twiceby hiking in
> along side lake- twice by falling down path from fat gap -and once kayaked
> over from boatramp across lake.
> the stream remains an an puzzle for me. Plenty of rainbow , a few small
> browns but never the reported monster brown.
> Now area gets lots of hikers in summer, even believe some summer camp groups
> comes thru---but the old timers around Graham county ( who now bass fish by
> boat ) tell big stories about the good old days on Slickrock
>
>
>

For years, my preferred Slickrock access was via canoe. The ramp is
just across the 129 bridge - you turn left where the locals have put up
a "Private Property" sign (it's public access). The locals have old bus
bodies and campers situated in the parking area and they "hang out",
most of the summer. I camped farther down the lake, on the Tennessee
side beside a nice creek with 3 waterfalls (10 ft height) within a
hundred feet of my campsite.

My most productive spots were about half way up the trail to Fat Gap
(and that's a helluva steep walk) along an area where the creek is a bit
more level. There are DEEP pools in that section and I had my best
results dragging a weighted "Grammie" through them. Also found a big
dry (#12 EHC) fished wet and weighted, to be productive.

You do find campers and hikers in the upper setctions during the summer,
but I've encountered few fishermen during MANY trips there. Haven't
made the trip in 4-5 years and I doubt my knees would be happy,
traversing that much change of elevation on the trail.

I think my most surprising Slickrock moment wasn't actually on the
creek, but just into the lake where Slickrock empties. Mimicking the
locals, I had taken along a spinning rod and I dropped a spoon into the
lake (that's a DEEP lake). As I began the retrieve, I immediately
hooked up and brought up a ....Walleye.....a big Walleye.... There are
some other surprising fish in that lake (and Fontana).

Tom

[wayne harrison]

"Tom Brown" > wrote

> I think my most surprising Slickrock moment wasn't actually on the creek,
> but just into the lake where Slickrock empties.

it's a remarkable coincidence that my most memorable moment in
connection with slickrock came at the same spot.
pamlico jim and i had been ferried across the lake by a local in his
glitter boat, and we had exhausted ourselves (or, more accurately, myself)
with hiking in and out and fishing most of a very, very hot summer's day.
when the kid in the bass boat came to pick us up, jim and i loaded back into
the boat, and pj told him to anchor for a moment--he was, by god, going for
a quick swim to cool down.
i noticed the "steam" coming off the water's surface, stuck my hand in
boatside, and told jim that he had to be insane to enter that water. he
responded with the usual contemptuous reference to my cowardice, lack of
breeding, etc, shucked all his ****, and dove in. he reappeared
instantaneously, shooting out of the water like some pale, rubbery cruise
missle, cursing at the top of his lungs.
later, our legendary local guide, roy bailey, told us the water temp in
calderwood was around 40 degrees, more or less.
served the arrogant ******* right. :)

yfitp
wayno

[Ken Fortenberry]

Bob Patton wrote:
> I found SR to be less challenging than hazel - similar to snowbird but
> different. Still plenty challenging. I only fished the bottom quarter
> mile or so, over about three hours. The bottom of the stream is filled
> with large rocks and submerged overhanging ledges - it looks like it's
> beautiful brown trout water. I caught four small rainbows.
>
> Plenty of big boulders to hide behind while casting- but fishing it is
> not an athletic event like the upper portion of Santeetlah, where Jeff,
> Wolfgang, and I fished three years ago.
>
> There are some flat spots beside the stream that would be good
> campsites. I'd think the thing to do is spend the night there and fish
> very late in the day or very early in the morning. Looking at the moss
> on the rocks, I did not see a lot of evidence of heavy foot traffic on
> the stream.

I've accessed Slickrock both from the lake and from Big Fat Gap
and I agree that spending the night is the way to go. Both hikes
are more than I want to do in a day anymore, when I get back to
Slickrock I'll hike down from Big Fat Gap and spend the night.
There are several campsites near where the trail crosses the
stream. I posted a pic of that section of the creek on abpf.

The campsites there appear to be heavily used, mostly by hunters
and poachers from the looks of the garbage they leave down there,
but I've never seen another fisherman.

I hiked in from the lake with Joe one day after a fall rain had
caused fish to come up into the creek from the lake. There were
many fish gathered in the pool beneath the first falls. It was
quite the sight watching those fish try to leap the falls. Many
fish died right there in that pool and there were rotting fish,
and plenty of bear tracks, everywhere. Stunk to high heaven too.

The trail from Big Fat Gap is easy enough going down but a
strenuous climb out, still I prefer it to hiking in from the
lake.

--
Ken Fortenberry

[Conan The Librarian]

Jeff Miller wrote:

> all the streams were extremely low during our first week there...fished
> buffalo, squally, snowbird, and santeetlah the first week, with one day
> devoted to boatriding around on lake santeetlah. caught lots of
> fish...typical size, no bigguns... except for several of andy jordan's
> huge pets behind his cabin on snowbird. he has some that approach 30
> inches and are very healthy.

When I was hiking up to the lower falls on Snowbird my last day
there, I ran across a trio of fishermen who were also hiking up. One of
them apparently owns a house below Junction and they were talking about
how they had stocked huge fish there. If I understood them correctly,
the place he owns is the fancied-up mobile home near the end of the row
of cabins/houses. It had a sign out front that said something like
"vacation rental" and had a phone number on it.

I wonder if this could be the same guy. He was tall, surly-looking,
missing a few teeth, packing a sidearm, and in general looked like the
big guy in Deliverance. :-}

> [snip of stuff that makes me envy you, you bastid]

I can't wait to get back and explore more on Snowbird.


Chuck Vance (and Santeetlah ... and Bradley Fork ... and ...)

[Jeff Miller]

Conan The Librarian wrote:


>
> I wonder if this could be the same guy. He was tall, surly-looking,
> missing a few teeth, packing a sidearm, and in general looked like the
> big guy in Deliverance. :-}
>

different guy. andy's place is the big western style log cabin at
snowbird creekside (it's for sale, 600k)...no mobile homes allowed in
that little development. the mobiles are perched on a sliver of land
farther up the road. the entire lower end up to the meadow is in the
process of development, and, hence, ruin. fortunately, above the
junction should remain worthy of continued visits in search of wild trout...

> I can't wait to get back and explore more on Snowbird.

me too...

jeff